As your friendly, neighborhood vampire-loving book blogger, I feel it is my duty to promote all the great vampire books out there.

Ok, I actually just made that up because it sounded good. But that doesn’t make it any less true! I do in fact love vampire books, and I feel like they’ve gotten a bad rap over the years. So whether you’re already a die-hard vampire fan or are just a fan of good paranormal books in general, I’m here to recommend to you all some great ones that you might not know about!

1. The Human Cure by Tracy Auerbach

This one is great if you want a clean romance and a really unique twist with vampires who won’t do any sexy biting but will do plenty of killing. [Review]

2. The Gardella Vampire Hunters Series by Colleen Gleason

This series is about vampires as the monsters to be killed rather than main characters, and it’s full of emotion, sexual tension, and sassiness, all set in Victorian times. [Review]

3. The Nightlife: San Antonio by Travis Luedke

This one is gritty and somewhat dark with a female vampire and human male match-up, plus some interesting, hard-edged characters. [Review]

4. To Summon a Vampire by Soraya Cage

This one is intense and darkly erotic with some BDSM about an unhealthy relationship between a vampire and a witch.

5. Something Wicked by Carol Oates

If you’ve ever wanted to read about Jack the Ripper as a vampire, plus some romance and a great friendship, this is for you. It’s also reminiscent of Anne Rice with its slow pace and beautiful writing. [Review]

6. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

This one has sexy yet dangerous vampires, a kind of eerie beauty to the writing and story, and a unique take on how vampires fit into society with amazing world-building. [Review]

7. House of Royals Series by Keary Taylor

This series puts a different spin on vampires with Born and Bitten ones with lots of character growth and scheming vampire politics. [Review]

8. The Harker Trilogy by Erin Hayes

This series is about a vampire hunting human and her vampire love interest, but it’s far more focused on saving the world than romance, and it’s quite unpredictable at times. [Review]

9. Les Corbeaux: The French Vampire Legend Series by Emma V. Leech

This series starts as the classic YA vampire-human (well, vampire-witch) romance but quickly matures and grows into its own unique story with badass characters and some great emotion. [Review]

10. Thieves Series by Lexi Blake

This one is a fun urban fantasy/paranormal romance with all sorts of creatures, complex characters, action-packed plots, hilarity, all the feels, and LOTS of explicit, sexy vampire biting! [Review]

Oh how funny, I was just commenting on your blog at like the same time you were commenting on mine?! I feel like you might really like Coldest Girl in Coldtown, you should def check that one out if you haven’t read it!

I haven’t read Coldtown although I have been wanting to try Holly Black. I guess her fae stuff is kinda dark and twisted, which I like. :) Tithe and Darkest Part of the Forest are two that I wanna read. Maybe I’ll add Coldest Girl.

Mercy has vamps and fae along w/ the wolvies. The vamps (so far) are pretty wicked and tough- dark too. Stefan’s like this loner vamp who has a thing for Mercy, he helps her but she knows he’s dangerous. You’d like Stefan maybe? But yeah the shifter thing…

I read Damned If I Do recently and was expecting a bit more from it in the way of characters to love. I used to read tons of vampire books but recently they all seem to be Anne Rice gothic or packed with romance, the two types I don’t enjoy! It could be a while before I tackle any more but I do love vampires themselves!

To be honest, I didn’t love that one. It’s my least favorite on the list. But I wanted 10 books lol, and it’s the kind of book that I don’t feel bad rec’ing because I feel like it’s not bad, it just depends on taste. I like romance, so I’m ok with that, but I don’t like the typical PNR with the alpha males and whatnot.

I really need to move up The Coldest Girl in Coldtown on my buy list me thinks. I always liked vampires when I was younger but as I went into college the vampires always lost some of their darkness. So it is good that you share this list. I’ll have to remember some of these for when I do want to return to the vampires.

I mean, I know which is my favorite on the list, but I would say it depends on your taste. If you’re looking for a standalone, that narrows it down to any that don’t have the word “series” or “trilogy” in the heading. If you specifically want YA (I’m not sure exactly what you like to read?), that leaves you with Coldest Girl, which is definitely a good one :-) But I think all of these are good, depending on a person’s taste!

Yay, vampires!! I’m always on the lookout for vampire books since I can’t get enough of them. The Coldest Girl in Coldtown is my current read and I’m so excited for it because it’s been on my TBR for forever. I read Polidori’s The Vampyr earlier this year and it wasn’t too bad, but not the best vampire story I’ve ever read.

Hooray, a fellow vampire fan :-D I’m so glad you’re planning to read Coldest Girl, it’s a great book! I actually haven’t read The Vampyr and in fact you just reminded me that I want to. I don’t imagine it will be the best, but it’s neat to read the books that have influenced what the genre has become.

Ooh nice post! I’ll be saving this post for later to go through all these awesome books and add some to my tbr….I love vampires so much, I can’t seem to stop buying books about them! As for lesser-known vampire books, most I’ve read are actually quite well known, like Twilight, Evernight, and the Morganville Vampires. I have some indie vampire books downloaded on my eReader that I really need to get to reading!

Yay! It always makes to happy to know there are still other readers out there who love vampires as well since a lot of people just seem to avoid vampire books. Anyway, you should totally try some indie ones, there’s all sort of diff portrayals and unique takes on them for you to read about!

Well, I can say that you’ve not steered me wrong yet with book recommendations so I’ve added a few more to your shelf. I can’t wait to read more of Blake’s Thieves series as well as Gleason’s Gardella series. I have Taylor’s House of Royals series in my queue and you have me curious about Luedke’s series. Oh, and also own the first in the Harker trilogy! Geez! I need to get to reading! :)

I can’t wait for you to read more of Thieves either! Haha. I love that you’re liking both that and the Gardella series so much! I haven’t actually read the whole Luedke series. I read San Antonio first (the one I rec’d) since it was a standalone in the series and really liked it, but then I read the first book and didn’t care for it (but, I mean, you might like it). I didn’t *love* the Harker trilogy either, but it’s not bad, so I included it since I feel like other people might like it depending on taste :-)

My first book crush was Lestat from The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice. Since then I have read hundreds of vampire books. So many were rubbish that I am now very wary of them. I did read a few though that should be mentioned;
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Queen of Blood by Jill Myles
I have read a few eroitca novels that feature vampires as well. Maybe those are for a different audience but, I would highly recommend Red Grow the Roses by Janine Ashbless if you are into that.
The Passage series is about Vampires but it puts them in a villainous light so maybe notif you “love” vampires.
I haven’t read any on your list. But now I want to add all those Lexi Blake books to my TBR. Oh and The Coldest Girl in Town, which I should have guessed was about vampires but didn’t. Thanks for sharing your favs here!

Funny, I’m rereading Interview with the Vampire right now lol. And same here, since first reading this book, I’ve read at least over a hundred vampire books. I get what you’re saying though because, for a while, I did stop reading about vampires. But now I can’t stay away! I will definitely check out your recs :-D I don’t mind sex as long as there’s a story of some sort to go with it, and I also read books where the vamps are the bad guys, even though I do prefer them as the brooding good guys ;-) The Lexi Blake books are my faves on the list!

I love vampires, especially the T.V. shows (Vampire Diaries, Buffy, even My Babysitter is a Vampire), but I’m reluctant to try out Twilight. EVER. Just no.
But this post is super helpful because I WOULD really like to read a vampire book. Besides Vampire Academy and aforementioned teenage and world acclaimed series, I didn’t know of any other vampire books. AND I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW HOLLY BLACK had a vampire book! I’m really looking forward to checking her books out, so there’s something new I learned today!
Thank you for this awesome list! It was a great idea!

Oh no this ended up in my spam, idk why, so I only just saw it now! Oddly enough, I love vampire books but not really shows/movies? Like, I’ve seen some, but I don’t seek them out the way I do with books.

Well yay, I’m glad my list could help! Holly Black does indeed have a vampire book! I’ve never tried any of her other books, but I would like to now that I’ve read this one.

Well, I don’t see a weekly update, but I’m still dropping by to weekly-checkup on you :D how have you been?
Yes, you are totally right – vampire books are down in the dumps mostly because absolutely everyone jumped on that bandwagon :D I don’t know about sexy, probably not my thing, but I’d like to read some actually dark and good vampire classics. Anne Rice?
Needless to say, I haven’t heard of these yet :)

No, I’m gonna try every other week (if things like moving and hurricanes don’t keep getting in the way) and see if that works for me. But you’re so sweet for checking in!

I’m actually really glad everyone jumped on the bandwagon since, when I was younger, there wasn’t much selection in terms of vampire books, and now there’s tons! Hmm, yeah, sexy vamps are probably not for you. But Anne Rice’s vampires are definitely the sexy kind, even though they don’t have sex.

I absolutely LOVE vampires but I go through stages and I haven’t read a vampire book in a very very long time. I kind of miss it, actually. I haven’t read the Holly Black one but I do recognise it as one on my TBR already.

I love vampire books but I can’t always find the type I like or feel in the mood for. The Thieves series is very, very good, :) I have Travis Luedke on my Kindle waiting to be read. But I’ll be checking some of these others out.

I also love the Hours of the Night series by Irene Preston & Liv Rancourt. And one of my absolute favourite series is Vampire Academy – and I don’t even like YA ordinarily, lol.

30 Days of Night is so good but it isn’t lesser known so I guess that one doesn’t quite fit the theme here. :)

Great list, Kristen. Thanks for taking the time to put this together for us fellow vampire reading devotees.

I don’t really have a favourite vampire book, probably because I haven’t read that many. I agree that Coldest Girl in Cold Town was a brilliant and original vampire book. I will be checking out a few others on your list as well because I am put off vampire books because of Twilight but I trust you to know some good books to read.

Yeah, I think I remember you reviewing Coldtown and saying good things. The Coldtown idea was definitely unique. The Human Cure actually had something that was vaguely similar, but also unique. You might like the Gardella series (even though it’s not all that vampire-y since they’re killing the vampires). Or you might like Something Wicked—it had pretty writing, and I think you like pretty writing? It’s not unique like Coldtown, but both books felt kind of reminiscent of Anne Rice to me. Or you might like The Key to Erebus. Those are my personal recs for you based on what I know of your taste ;-)

The Harker Trilogy is one I’m very interested in. I like my vampires mean and gritty.. I’m okay with vampire love interests but I don’t care much for humane vamps – you know, the isn’t is romantic that I love you and want to turn you so we can spend eternity together. Really, eternity?

I had totally forgotten about The Coldest Girl in Coldtown and I did want to read that one. I have no idea why it isn’t on my Goodreads tbr.. I’ll have to fix that.

This made me think about the vampire books I have read, and besides the first three Anne Rice books and Dracula, I have only read the first two Liminality books, and I think three (four) of the companion books. I have the third one, but I haven’t had time to read it yet. It’s strange because I really like vampires.

I have The Coldest Girl in Coldtown, but I’ve yet to pick it up. You’ve definitely got me interested in The Gardella Vampire Hunters Series too. I don’t know why, but that one really piques my interest!

I really have mixed feelings about vampires. I like reading about them because they’re fascinating creatures and I’d love to read a politics centered story with vampires in it so I think I’d like The House of Royals. But I have a hard time reading a book with a vampire as a love interest. I can’t see the appeal (I can’t get past the fact that they drink blood it’s just… Eeew).
But I think I’m going to add The Human Cure and The Coldest Girl in Coldtown.

hmmm, I haven’t heard of any of these vampire book but I do really love a good vampire read (have you heard of Vampire Academy or Bloodlines?) I’ll have to check these out and start branching out my paranormal books! Great post :)

I’ve never actually been a big fan of steampunk, but it can def be interesting sometimes when paired with paranormal! Glad you’re enjoying it!

I happen to love that vampire books are overdone because that means I have lots to choose from lol. I never get tired of reading about vampires! I hope you like the Lexi Blake’s series, it’s one of my faves :-)

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About Me

Hi! I’m Kristen, a twenty-something who loves reading, writing, and rambling. (I also love pomegranates, The Sims, nighttime, circus, and the color red, but that kinda kills the alliteration.)

If you want to know more about me and my blog, here’s my about page. Otherwise, stick around for SFF book/game reviews & recommendations, bookish discussions, author interviews, and more. I look forward to getting to know my fellow readers, gamers, and sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal lovers!